


Another chance

by qwertycandy



Category: Legion (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Loneliness, Melancholy, Post-Canon, Post-Finale, Redemption, You're Welcome, but it’s deliberately written ambiguously so read it however you like, looking for meaning, my attempt at, then watch me overuse it to death, they are written here as essentially a surrogate father-son relationship, though the ending here is pretty saccharine, watch how much mileage I can get out of one simple metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 16:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20245519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwertycandy/pseuds/qwertycandy
Summary: “If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.” -Mary PickfordMajor spoilers for the series finale. Non-spoilery tags for your convenience. Spoilery (for the show) summary when you click through :)





	Another chance

**Author's Note:**

> The finale gave me a lot of feelings, and I felt like Farouk got a kinda rough deal since he will now be forever stuck missing someone with whom he has 30+ years of memories but who doesn’t exist anymore and who he didn’t even _really_ know in the first place, so this fic builds on that premise and tries to give him some catharsis and an eventual happy, meaningful ending (after a generous helping of angst first, of course).

Farouk closed his eyes and focused his mind. When he next opened his eyelids, he was sitting in a booth in the middle of a dessert, crystal ball by his hand and one young man sitting in front of him.

\----------

This is where it all happened, where they met for the first time. After all those years spent waiting for that glorious moment when they would finally talk with each other, without any proxies. Just two equals, two adults now… gods, really. _Le soleil. La lune._

He was so proud of David in that moment. The boy didn’t see it yet, still didn’t understand, but he had so much greatness ahead of him. There was nothing he was ever more sure of, not in his several thousands of years living on this planet, and he looked forward to guiding David on his journey.

Yes, this place created by his mind in the astral plane was where he and his David had their first talk.

Well, not _he,_ Farouk had to remind himself again. His alternate self from the future.

It was the strangest experience. Farouk had all of his memories, saw all that he saw, felt all of his feelings… and yet there were things that made little sense to him. Why did he never try talking to David before then? Why did he never reach out to comfort him when David was having yet another nightmare, when he got fired from a job for coming in drunk one too many times, or when he was sitting in a ditch, high from the blue liquid, feeling worthless and so utterly alone… Why didn’t he speak to him then and tell him he’s not alone? That he never was alone to begin with and would never be alone for as long as he’s alive. He would always be there for him.

But for some reason Farouk didn’t quite understand, his other self never did that. Just tried to bide his time and grow stronger before he makes the grand reveal of his existence. Before he’ll make David understand and will offer him the whole universe on a silver platter, the two of them ruling over the world as gods, together. He was so sure that would happen…

It was all like a strange dream, a memory of a life you’ve never lived, and of a protégé you never had. None of it actually happened.

Still, he missed David every day, with all of his being. How could he not? Before the boy came into his life he was hollow, his life devoid of any true meaning. He understood that now. Everything in his pompous palace, every servant, all of his anger and pride… those were only things with which he tried to fill that gaping hole in his being, and it _almost_ worked — over the time he made even himself believe that he has everything he might ever want. Delusions — there was a certain irony in succumbing to his own weapon of choice…

But then his future self gave him his memories, his life, and Farouk _saw._ And there was no coming back from that. Nothing would ever be the same.

Moments later David and the alternate Shadow King got erased from existence, and he was left with nothing but his grief…

\----------

“So, what do you want to talk about today?” David asked. He squirmed in his seat in front of the fortuneteller’s booth and flicked off some imagined dirt from his t-shirt. It was the same t-shirt he was wearing the last time Farouk saw him.

The _only_ time I saw him, Farouk thought to himself bitterly. “Have I ever told you the story of the scorpion and the frog?” he asked instead.

David grinned at him, looking quite feral at that moment. “You mean the real me or this version you’ve been occasionally hallucinating for the last couple of years?”

Apparently across every plane of reality and his every iteration, David knew exactly what to say to hurt him. And he would do so with all the glee Farouk remembered from him.

So he pretended that he didn’t hear the remark. After all, he didn’t come here to argue but to relax, whenever he felt lost and needed to recenter himself. Every time he needed to talk to the one person who could truly understand him... even though he only existed in Farouk’s head.

He was painfully aware of the irony of their role reversal.

“I find it fascinating. People always pity the frog. _Oh, poor creature, and what a vile thing that scorpion was._ But he didn’t make himself poisonous; it wasn’t his choice.”

David’s sneer said quite clearly what he thought of that. “You think it wasn’t his fault he killed them both?”

“I think…” Farouk continued somberly, “that perhaps they were always destined to die, both of them, no matter what they did. The scorpion couldn’t help himself any more than the frog could. Whatever choices they would alter, there was no version in which they both get safely on the other side.”

“Always hated the story,” David said with a sudden spurt of manic energy. “It’s not like the scorpion didn’t know what would happen if he stings the frog. So he should have just… I don’t know, _not do that._ He used the frog and then killed them both because he couldn’t stop acting like a parasitic asshole.”

“You knew what would happen, _joonam,_ and yet you did all of it anyway. Killed countless people and even almost destroyed the time itself.” Farouk said. There was no malice in his voice. He didn’t really blame David for his actions, not anymore at least, and it all happened such a long time ago. All that remained was some echo of the previous events, a vague sense of sadness...

David was openly glaring at him now. “That was… that was something completely different! They betrayed me, _you all did._ I just did what I had to do to survive, to fix everything.”

Farouk idly wondered why is it that even in this version created by his subconsciousness David was always so antagonistic. And why is it that he kept coming here anyway, seeking the company of a man who despised him? 

Maybe despite of his grand imagination and thousands of years spent honing his powers he still wasn’t able to imagine a version of David who could feel anything else for him. It might be because he didn’t think he deserved anything more...

And perhaps it was part of his punishment. Forever seeking love of someone who wouldn’t want to give it to him even if he was still alive. Which he wasn’t.

Whether it was because of his telepathic powers or the simple fact that David was a projection of his mind, the younger man seemed to be aware of Farouk’s torrent of thoughts at the moment, as for the first time that day the anger in his eyes seemed replaced with something else and much worse. Pity.

“Why did you come here today?” David asked almost gently.

For a few moments, Farouk said nothing. He debated with himself about how much he was willing to open up in this conversation, after all he did still have his pride and rarely allowed himself to be vulnerable. But he also felt tired. So finally he decided that he didn’t come here to speak only in metaphors and went for honesty instead. “I met a little girl in the bazaar, she was begging by the entrance. Reminded me of those little demons who used to live in my palace...”

At that, Farouk allowed himself a tiny, wistful smile. It was nice having some company around but he wasn’t able to stay, not after everything that happened. His mind held too many memories and not enough of them at the same time, and he had to figure out what it all meant and what to do next. So he traveled, alone. Never stayed in one place too long. And wasn’t he always alone in the end?

“I asked her where her parents were and she said she didn’t know. Didn’t even remember their names. Her memory was _disparue,_ gone.“

It was a horrible thing, losing one’s memory. Sometimes memories were all you had. To lose even that…

Unbidden, his own thoughts went back to David when he was younger. The boy’s mind festered and occupied by terrible, frightful images. Farouk would, after some consideration, erase some of his memories then. One of them was the vision of a future so terrible that it made David want to end his life.

At the mere memory, his eyes prickled with unshed tears. To prevent them from falling, he kept recounting his encounter. “I thought I might be able to reach into her mind and bring back her memories. That if only I could help her then perhaps…” Perhaps it would take away some of his guilt.

When he kept being quiet, David cleared his throat and asked, “So, what happened then?”

“I got into her mind and found that her parents are dead. I had them killed.”

_“Oh.”_

A long, heavy silence followed.

“Did you restore her memories?”

Was it just Farouk’s imagination or was there less malice and anger in David’s voice than he would have expected?

“No, I left. I didn’t want to put her through all of that again.” Or to watch the look in her eyes when she recognizes the man who killed her only family.

At that, David’s face hardened once more.

It didn’t matter who chose that he would be poisonous, Farouk thought, he was still a scorpion. And there were things he could never undo, with or without time travel…

\----------

It was one of those days when he felt especially lonely, and so now he was sitting at a long table set with some of the greatest meals from all over the world, classical music was playing faintly in the distance and sat across from him was David, as always.

“Do you ever wonder how will my life go in this timeline? The new, improved David?”

He did. Several times he wanted to reach out with his mind and make sure that the boy and his family were doing well. But he didn’t suppose they would appreciate it and since Charles was a telepath, he couldn’t exactly do that clandestinely.

“Seeing as you’re growing up with your parents and they know what to do when your powers start manifesting, I should think that your life will go well.” Perfectly well, in that cozy little nuclear family, unbothered by Farouk and his inconvenient attachment towards David.

He was brought back from his reverie by the aforementioned mutant and his out of the blue question: “Speaking of parents — what happened to the little girl from the bazaar? You never told me.”

Slightly taken aback, it took him a moment to answer. “I got back and returned her memories. It wasn’t my right to keep them from her.” It was a hard thing to do, not because of the act itself being hard but because it reminded him of his past, of how shallow and vengeful he used to be and all those actions he would rather forget nowadays.

This answer earned him one of David’s rare, open smiles. He reached for his wineglass and quietly sipped the Bordeaux while still smiling at Farouk over the rim of the glass.

It was unnerving in its unexpectedness, albeit not at all unpleasant…

“What?” Farouk asked simply.

“Nothing, I just… I was thinking about why you keep bringing me back, or this _simulation_ of me built from your other self’s memories. Do you want to hear my theory?”

Before he could say anything to that, David continued, “I think you feel lost. You don’t know who you are and who you should be. Or even _could_ be. You want to move beyond your past but are afraid that it’s inevitable and you can never change, not really.”

It stunned him into temporary speechlessness, and that wasn’t something he experienced many times over his whole long existence.

“By the way — did you know that there _is_ a version in which both the scorpion and the frog live?”, asked David. “Well, it’s not the same, actually it’s the original tale of the scorpion and the tortoise that the other one is based on, but this one is much older and comes from India,” David continued to ramble while gesticulating.

“The point is,” said David, “that the tortoise is protected by its shell and so both of them get safely on the other side.”

Farouk was finding the whole conversation quite jarring. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean by that, David,” he said.

The young man in question sighed a bit impatiently. “I mean that I didn’t use to have a shell. In the other timeline. It was all… too much. My powers, the voices, you in my head… I had nothing to cover myself with and hide when it was too overwhelming.”

“But here you have your family,” it was Farouk’s time to sigh, “and they will shield you and teach you how to protect yourself.”

“I suppose,” David allowed, “but… what if they weren’t the only ones teaching me? Wouldn’t I be able to protect myself even better?”

Did David really just suggest what he thought he suggested? No, it couldn’t be.

“You keep wanting to change your life but don’t know how, so you’re aimlessly moving from a place to a place, worrying that it’s too late for you. But a part of you knows that you can still change, that you have already started changing. That’s why you keep bringing me back — to remind you of that.”

Hearing those words, from David out of all people, _his_ David, meant more than he ever knew it would.

_“Joonam… “_

“You can still save yourself, and me and others like me… Teach us how to create our own shells and you won’t have to worry about poisoning anyone again.”

\----------

It was one year later when he was in his room at the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and was preparing for his next lesson. It turned out that being great at various psychic attacks also made you fairly good at teaching the defense against them, plus he occasionally taught the telepathy class when Charles was too busy with saving the world.

Students loved it when he would train them in the astral plane. Some took to it quickly, some needed encouragement to let their imagination flow… and some students in those awkward teenage years let their imagination flow a bit _too_ freely. Still, it was rewarding to see them get better and better with every lesson, and Farouk was proud of the progress each of them made.

Perhaps unsurprisingly one of his most talented students was little David who got the knack of astral plane almost immediately. Once again Farouk was sure that the boy had much greatness ahead of him and would one day be a truly formidable opponent to anyone foolish enough to want to fight him. He was just glad that wouldn’t be him, and that this time around David was getting all the support he needed to grow up well.

And last but not least, in his spare time he would also run a debate club, teaching the youngsters how to articulate their thoughts with precision and win a different kind of fights.

Yet at the present time he was doing none of those things. Instead, he was sitting on the carpet of the clone of his room that he created on the astral plane, papers pertaining his next lesson haphazardly lying all around him and a chessboard put before him. There was a game in progress, one against his most favorite player.

David, not the little one but his David, was sitting across from him, wearing the same tweed jacket with elbow patches he adopted soon after Farouk got his teaching job (whether out of solidarity or as some form of a teasing joke, the former Shadow King didn’t know), and he was biting his lip while focusing profusely on his next move, for what’s now been a considerable amount of time.

“You know that I have a lesson in twenty minutes, my dear, don’t you?” Farouk asked fondly.

“I know, _I know…_ I’m just trying to come up with a new strategy. Wouldn’t want to repeat the same mistakes.”

Both men were keenly aware that the sentence was really about more than just a game of chess.

“Do you ever still think about scorpions and frogs?” David asked suddenly.

Farouk had to think about it for a moment. “Not for as long as I can remember, no. I found meaning here, and all of my students will be capable of standing their ground in a fight against almost any opponent, including me if need be.”

What followed was a moment of silence during which Farouk realized that it was really true. Perhaps even old dogs (or rather scorpions) could learn some new tricks after all…

David seemed to ponder this for a second. “I’m not complaining, but I thought that when this moment comes, you would stop talking to me. That now you have some real people in your life you would just spend time with them, and over time your memory of me would grow weaker and weaker, until one day I would be gone, like my real self.”

For the first time in a while, Farouk was once again forced to remember that fateful day when his whole life changed. Charles bringing his strange old friend over for breakfast, finding out that there were more than just two telepaths in the room, running into his other self from an alternate future, seeing over 30 years of the other Farouk’s life, most of it spent witnessing every moment of David’s life, learning about David…. And losing him only moments later.

He felt a sharp twinge in his heart.

“Never, _joonam.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the first thing I’ve _ever_ written, so I apologize that it’s probably not that good. More likely than not it comes off quite cringy at several places but what can you do ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ That’s what you get when I try to sound sophisticated but I’m just running on a lack of sleep, too much caffeine and the resulting frenetic energy…
> 
> Also I’m not a native speaker and while I try _not_ to butcher things like grammar and stylistics of writing in English, there are probably things that will make the more astute readers’ eyes bleed. Sorry for that - feel free to point them out to me in the comments :)
> 
> And last but not least, if you’ve read this far then you’re the MVP - thank you.


End file.
